Humanity on the brink of oblivion in 'Lottery'

By Jeanne Jakle :
July 18, 2014
: Updated: July 19, 2014 11:26pm

A fertility specialist (Marley Shelton, right) and her assistant (David Alpay) try to find answers in a chilling Lifetime drama set in a bleak future that teeters on the edge of human extinction. The show pilot also takes intriguing peeks into the future.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Women, for mysterious reasons, are no longer getting pregnant, leaving the world teetering on the verge of human extinction.

Amid the ensuing desperation, a ray of hope peeks out: A fertility expert with a conscience, who, against all odds, has managed to successfully fertilize 100 embryos.

Who will be given the chance to become surrogate moms to these precious children? The answer can be found in “The Lottery,” a new Lifetime series which begins its 10-part run at 9 p.m. Sunday.

In a summer full of apocalyptic dramas, Lifetime presents its own chilling tale of futuristic alarm.

It comes from a writer who knows a little something about the subject. Timothy J. Sexton co-wrote the Oscar-nominated script for “Children of Men,” the 2006 Alfonso Cuarón's drama that explored a similar premise.

Sexton's new venture is set in 2025, six years after the last children — six total — have been born. Amusement parks look like ghost towns, hospital nurseries are empty, tricycle factories have been abandoned.

The world's women, inexplicably, have become infertile.

“Our efforts to solve the mystery have been relentless, comprehensive — and unsuccessful,” a grim President of the United States (Yul Vázquez) says of the infertile in a TV address.

As a result, the existing population is starting to fall apart. Personal lives are disrupted by government interference. Scary conspiracies are afoot, coupled with violence, even murder.

Weary of submitting to mandatory fertility tests, women stage angry protests at clinics and are met by armed police officers.

One of the fathers of the precious final six, Kyle (Michael Graziadei, “American Horror Story”) — a recovering alcoholic and single dad of Elvis — is late to pick up his son from school one day.

The government instantly steps in, stamps Kyle as an irresponsible father and takes control of Elvis. Kyle risks arrest and worse to get his son back.

How is this series different from Sexton's “Children of Men”?

Admittedly, the movie and series share “the same point of departure,” an infertile world, Sexton — also an executive producer on the series — told a gathering of TV critics at Warner Bros. Studios last week. However, “The Lottery” has a distinctly different tone and timeline.

The series is set in “the world at a tipping point,” Sexton said. “'Children of Men' was a world that tipped over and rolled down the hill.”

He mentioned that ray of hope in the series. Dr. Alison Lennon (Marley Shelton, “Pleasantville”), who fights to make some sense out of the chaos, initially is thrilled to share her breakthrough — the viable embryos — with the government. However, when Darius Hayes (Martin Donovan, “Homeland”), an unsavory government official, threatens to seize them, she decides to go rogue.

Meanwhile, the president's ambitious chief of staff (Athena Karkanis) presents a flamboyant strategy that she says will help rejuvenate the sagging populace.

Instead of keeping the embryos a secret, she suggests to her boss, “Let's shout our success to the rooftops. ... I want to sell hope. A lottery. Let's share the victory. Let every woman feel like she has a chance to hit the jackpot.”

What follows is anyone's guess, as Lifetime only supplied critics with the pilot. That first episode, however, was wonderfully suspenseful, a thrilling hour of television.

I also loved the little touches that signal what could happen in our real future. Gas costs $8.79 a gallon. Computer tablets and iPhones are absolutely translucent. And the president is Hispanic.

“We deliberately are trying to be mindful of the future as a diverse place,” Sexton said, “and we've leaned into it.”

Shelton said “The Lottery,” which is shooting in Montreal, gets even more intense as it progresses. She added that she loves that it “really explores that gray area where our morals kind of become confused.”

“There's so much passion and excitement,” she said. “We're making TV magic.”

Jeanne Jakle's column appears Wednesdays and Sundays in mySA, and she blogs at Jakle's Jacuzzi on mySA.com. Email her at jjakle@express-news.net.